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Chocolate Banana Oat Muffins

    These lightly sweetened muffins are packed with whole grains, heart-healthy walnuts, rich cocoa powder and ripe bananas.

    Chocolate Banana Oat Muffins - The Lemon Bowl


    My two-year-old loves drinking smoothies for breakfast so inevitably we end up with a few extra ripe bananas each week. Normally I freeze them for future smoothies but there is something about a snowy weekend that gets me in the baking mood. In lieu of making my favorite chocolate chip cookies, I decided to be a good girl and create a healthy breakfast muffin packed with bananas, oats, and a little chocolate for good measure.

    Banana Oat Chocolate Muffins - The Lemon Bowl

    This recipe is adapted from Honest Fare to make them slightly less sweet with an extra dose of Omega-3’s from flax seed meal and walnuts. Because they are made with less sugar, they won’t cause that addictive “OH-MY-GOD-I-NEED-1000-MORE” response. If you’ve ever had more than one Girl Scout cookie in a sitting, you know what I’m talking about.. ;-)

    Banana Oat Chocolate Muffin with PB - The Lemon Bowl

    These muffins are perfect for on-the-go snacking or a healthy breakfast to eat during your commute or in the school drop off line. Oh and PS: they taste incredible with a smear of creamy natural peanut butter on top. You can thank me later.

    No fork required.

    Banana Oat Chocolate Muffins - The Lemon Bowl

    Banana Oat Chocolate Muffins

    4.67 stars average
    These lightly sweetened muffins are packed with whole grains, heart-healthy walnuts and ripe bananas.
    PREP: 10 mins
    COOK: 20 mins
    TOTAL: 30 mins
    Servings: 12 muffins

    Ingredients
     

    Instructions
     

    • Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees and line a muffin tin with 12 baking cups.
    • In a large bowl, mix together oats, yogurt and milk. Set aside to soak for 10 minutes.
    • Meanwhile, whisk together remaining dry ingredients in a small bowl: whole wheat pastry flour through ground cloves.
    • In a medium bowl, whisk together mashed bananas with oil and egg. Add to the soaking oat mixture and stir to combine.
    • Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Stir in walnuts or chocolate chips.
    • Using an ice cream scoop or 1/4 cup measuring cup, pour batter evenly into 12 lined muffin tins. Bake until toothpick comes out clean, about 18-20 minutes.
    • Let cool in pan 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

    Notes

    If you want to end up with a sweeter more cake-like muffin, increase sugar to 1/2 cup and use chocolate chips instead of walnuts.
    Recipe adapted from Honest Fare.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 220kcalCarbohydrates: 27.1gProtein: 5gFat: 11.2gSaturated Fat: 1.6gPolyunsaturated Fat: 9.6gTrans Fat: 0gCholesterol: 15mgSodium: 302mgFiber: 4.1gSugar: 9.2g

    SHOW AND TELL ON INSTAGRAM!Show me your creation and rate it below! Mention @thelemonbowl or tag #thelemonbowl! I would LOVE to see!
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    Liz DellaCroce

    Liz Della Croce is the creator and author of The Lemon Bowl, a healthy food blog. Since 2010, Liz has been sharing delicious recipes that just so happen to be healthy. By using real ingredients with an emphasis on seasonality, Liz has built a growing audience of loyal readers who crave good food for their families. Click Here To Subscribe to my newsletter:

    68 Comments

      1. Oh my goodness Ann – there should be two teaspoons baking powder and one teaspoon baking soda. I am updating the recipe right now! I am so sorry and have no idea how I could have left such key ingredients off the list!! Please forgive me!!

    1. Maybe I need a snowy weekend to get in the baking mood? These look incredible. The kids beg me for muffins, I am such a bad mom for not baking them for them! I love that these are full of all good things :)

    2. Liz these are perfect! I looovee the cocoa powder addition and the yogurt. My kids wouldn’t know what to do if I gave them an overly sweet muffin, they’d probably go into sugar shock ;) I usually sub applesauce for oil in my baked goodies, do you think that would work in these?
      Pinned onto my Healthy Treats to make ASAP board. ;}

    3. Wondering if I could use regular whole wheat flour instead of the pastry flour? Also, if I were to make mini muffins for my “mini me” :) what would be the cooking time? They look delish!

      1. You absolutely could although I highly suggest you buying a bag of whole wheat pastry or white whole wheat flour for baking. It results in a much lighter baked good (or pancake or muffin) but you still get all of the whole grain goodness. :) As for turning these into mini muffins, I have never made them (embarrassingly I don’t own a mini muffin tin!!!) so I couldn’t tell you with confidence. I would just start monitoring them and take them out when a toothpick comes out clean. So sorry I don’t have a firm answer on that one!!

    4. Hi Liz! I just made your pumpkin oatmeal chocolate chip muffins this weekend, and per usual…they are amazing. I have worked my way through making almost all your smoothies (green smoothie addict now), and your chicken shawarma (OMG, so good!!) Thanks for the awesome recipes! This will be on my list for Saturday baking!!

    5. I’ve been looking for a good banana recipe and want to try these tonight. I have flax seed but not the milled flax. Do you think the seeds would work?
      Thanks, they look great!

      1. If you don’t have milled flax seed I would either grind them in a spice grinder or skip them and replace with more flour. You could still add the seeds for crunch but they need to be in more of a “flour form” to work in this recipe. Hope that helps!

      1. I use canola oil or coconut oil (melted). I have substituted oil for applesauce but you have to be careful with that because it can really make for a dry baked good. I would almost prefer yogurt over applesauce. :)

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